Bulletin: March 19 – April 1

LET US PRAY 

FOR THOSE WHO ARE SICK 

Those in need of our prayers: David Brewer, Fresia Bunster, Simonne Cookson, Pat Dagenais, Gordon Deery, Carlos Alberto Garcia Ebbens, Rosemarie Elisan, Christine Foley, Anne Gibb, Connie Iacovelli, Debbie Maloney, Ann Maria Massaro, Elizabeth Matthews, Philomena McLoughlin, Francesco Moranelli, Roderick Morrison, Evelyn Nadeau, Helen Palazy, Hélène Parent, Marianne Pérignon, Griselda Rella Cortés & Barbara Wentzell.

REOPENING OF THE PARISH OFFICE

We are happy to announce that beginning this Monday, March 21^st the Parish Office will be open Monday to Thursday from 9:30am to 2pm.

2022 OFFERING ENVELOPES

1) If you have not picked up your 2022 offering envelopes, they are available in the Church. They are in alphabetical order (A-L on the west side windowsills, M-Z on the east side windowsills).  If you have not used envelopes in the past, please take an unmarked box and return the included form to register. 

2) If in 2021 you used offering envelopes numbered 501-550, please note that you have been reassigned an envelope number for 2022.  This will help reduce the number of boxes of offering envelopes we purchase.

3) Even though the 2022 offering envelopes were labelled we require that you put your name and address on a couple of envelopes so that we can ensure that the donations are attributed to the right person/s. The following envelopes numbers have been received with no identification, Envelope # 006, 019, 038, 045, 055, 059, 061, 070, 071, 102, 110, 124, 167, 182, 187, 229, 250, 251, 272, 275, 278, 300, 335, 357, 361, 384 417 & 462.

YOUR INPUT IS NEEDED

The Pillars Trust Fund and the English-Speaking Catholic Council (ESCC) successfully organized a series of in-person information and social sessions for the older adults of our parish communities in the late summer and early autumn of 2021. Workshops were hosted at St. Edmund of Canterbury, St. Monica’s and St. Ignatius of Loyola and the topics covered were Mental Health & Aging, Navigating the Health & Social Service System and Re-location. These workshops were facilitated by knowledgeable and engaging experts and were very well received. Pillars and the ESCC would now like to expand the number of parishes where workshops are offered and plan for events to be hosted in the spring 2022. To gauge the level of interest and to ensure that the topics are of interest to our community, we are asking for you to take a few minutes to complete the following questionnaire: 

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/27BZ7PK

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the Executive Director of the ESCC, Anna Farrow at escc@bellnet.ca or 514-937-2301 ex. 256. 

PRACTICING PENANCE

When I sprain my ankle, part of the healing process will involve physical therapy. It’s tender, and perhaps it is swollen. It may be important to put ice on it first, to reduce the inflammation. I may want to wrap it an elevate it and stay off of it. Then I will need to start moving it and then walking on it, and eventually, as the injury is healed, I’ll want to start exercising it, so that it will be stronger than it was before, so that I won’t as easily injure it again. Penance is a remedy, a medicine, a spiritual therapy for the healing I desire. The Lord always forgives us. We are forgiven without condition. But complete healing takes time. With serious sin or with bad habits we’ve invested years in forming, we need to develop a therapeutic care plan to let the healing happen. To say “I’m sorry” or to simply make a “resolution” to change a long-established pattern, will have the same bad result as wishing a sprained ankle would heal, while still walking on it. Lent is a wonderful time to name what sinful, unhealthy, self-centered patterns need changing and to act against them by coming up with a strategy. For example, if the Lord is shining a light into the darkness of a bad pattern in my life, I can choose to “stop doing it.” But I have to work on a “change of heart” and to look concretely at what circumstances, attitudes, and other behaviors contribute to the pattern. If I’m self-indulgent with food, sex, attention-seeking behaviors and don’t ask “what’s missing for me, that I need to fill it with this?” then simply choosing to stop the pattern won’t last long. Lasting healing needs the practice of penance.

Taken from the Praying Lent pages of Creighton University’s Online Ministries web site:www.creighton.edu/CollaborativeMinistry/online.html. Used with Permission.

SHARE LENT – VICTOR STANDING UP TO CORPORATE POWER IN HONDURAS

In Honduras, as in much of the Global South, corporations often threaten and criminalize activists who speak up against their abuses. The Lenca Indigenous leader Víctor Vásquez was imprisoned in 2020 for fighting the corporate takeover of his people’s ancestral territory. Development and Peace-Caritas Canada’s partner, the Honduran Centre for the Promotion of Community Development (CEHPRODEC), helped free him from jail. Here is Victor’s story with a video: https://www.devp.org/en/blog/an-advent-of-freedom-the-story-of-victor/ 

This is an example of how our donations to Development and Peace – Caritas Canada are helping the social justice work of partners in the Global South. We can donate online or with the donation envelope for April 3rd (included in the box of offering envelopes).

WAY OF THE CROSS

Please join us every Friday evening during Lent, in the Church at 7pm, where we will pray the Way of the Cross.

UKRAINE RELIEF EFFORTS 

We invite you to join the Saint Edmund of Canterbury Parish community on the weekend of April 9^th & 10^th before and after all Masses, in supporting Ukrainians arriving in Montreal seeking refuge from the ongoing crisis in their country. We will collect donations in our Parish Hall and deliver them to Saint Sophie Ukrainian Orthodox Cathedral in East Montreal. Saint Sophie’s Cathedral has asked for the following donations:

• Babies and Children: Clothing NEW or GENTLY used. 
  (Boys and girls until age 18)
• Diapers. Wipes. Baby Food. Formula. Blankets (NEW ONLY).
• New stuffed animals or small games. Colouring books and crayons.
• Hygiene products: shampoo, deodorant. sanitary napkins, toothbrush, toothpaste. (NEW, in package).

We are actively looking for volunteers including students in search of community service hours to receive, sort and deliver (weekdays only) our donations to Saint Sophie’s Cathedral. Please call 514-795-8507 if you wish to volunteer.

Please keep our Ukrainian sisters and brothers in your prayers in their hour of need.